Commerce may be conducted in numerous venues. In particular, commerce may be conducted in real space or electronically, i.e., e-commerce. E-commerce is conducted via a computer network. Servers are used to store product and transaction information and computer terminals are used by purchasers to access the information stored in the server to view and modify such information via a transaction.
E-commerce may also be conducted in the context of interactive television. One exemplary implementation of interactive television is using set-top boxes or the like that may be programmed for bidirectional communication with a content provider. For example, a set-top box may receive content from a content provider and display the received content on a television (TV) or similar such device for viewing. The development of interactive television has enabled companies to provide consumers with options regarding many different products and information about those products. For example, a consumer using an interactive television application, such as HSN Shop By Remote®, may often be able to browse through thousands of different products from the convenience of his or her own home.
Challenges with providing so much information and content to a consumer includes the creation of a browsing and selection process that is both easy to use and fast. While television remote controls generally provide a suitable means for a user to navigate through different content and applications, it can often be difficult moving the cursor to the appropriate location to select a given item when there are many possible selections available at a given time. The multiple button remotes with up and down arrows can be inefficient to a user who wants to quickly navigate through numerous selections to arrive at his or her desired selection. Some remote controls have developed three-dimensional (“3D”) pointing techniques to alleviate these issues. For example, certain remote control devices provide 3D capabilities that enable a user to move in three dimensions in front of a display screen. However, in general, the viewing device (or a console connected to the viewing device) also must include specially configured hardware that enables the viewing device to receive positional data transmitted by the remote control as well as unique software that can process this positional data as desired.